my stock of franks is almost gone. However, I will always reserve one or two to save you the payment of double letters, though sometimes I may take the liberty to charge a single one to you. "Last night I sat down to consider the two or three passages which, in your last, you particularly recommended to me. I have patched up two of them after some fashion, which I shall here send you. Excuse the meanness of them; they will, perhaps, suggest something better for you to substitute in their room. The first passage is in Eleg. 5, lib. 1, s. 26, Garrulus in Dominæ ludere verna sinu,' &c. What if the whole passage in your version from ver. 25 to ver. 39, were thus altered and contracted: "I fondly thought, sweet maid, ah! thought in vain, When nodding [waving] Ceres asks the reaper's hand, O'er the ripe heaps at vintage will preside, And watch the must that flows a limpid tide; Will count my flocks, to clasp will frequent deign Some little prattler of my menial train; With pious care she 'll load each rural shrine, For yellow crops a golden sheaf assign, Cates [feasts] for my fold, rich clusters for my vine.+ If you look into the original you will see the reasons for the liberty I have taken in altering the above, though some of them are merely to avoid repetition of the same epithets or rhymes. "The other passage is in Elegy 8, lib. 1, line 1, Hunc cecinere diem Parcæ,' &c. Accept this humble attempt. ("This day," the Sister-Fates prophetic sung, And singing drew the sacred twine along,) "He comes (nor shall the gods the doom [that hour] recall,) Or thus: He comes (nor shall the gods this thread divide,) * Or thus : At vintage will the loaded baskets guide, And watch the must that's press'd a foaming tide. This version was for the most part adopted by Dr. Grainger. And singing drew the vital twine along,) "He comes, nor shall the gods the doom recall, I have taken the liberty to vary the second distich a good deal from yours, because I apprehend hunc fore is more literally rendered by he comes, &c. than as it is in yours. Your third distich will either come in after mine, or may be omitted; and the 4th may be immediately connected to the above, which will be most literal. chose the word Aquitania, as I think modern names should, if possible, be avoided. "As to the third passage, Elegy 9, lib. 1, line 35-38, 'At Venus,' &c. I can either make no sense of it, or else it will be such a sense as I choose to have nothing to do with. So that I would advise you wholly to omit the passage; the connexion will be better without them, viz. thus: And scorn the treasure monarchs can bestow: But she who gives to age her charms for pay, &c.* I hope you will weed out all such descriptions as this we have passed over; it will be acceptable to all whose approbation is desirable. I am ever yours, "T. PERCY." "For Dr. Grainger, at Mrs. Clarke's, in Bond-street, Wall-brook, London." [1757.] Dr. GRAINGER to the Rev. T. PERCY. "MY DEAR Friend, "I have considered your case with all the attention I master of, and can assure you that you have no occasion to apprehend either a radical decay or a blindness. It is indeed not surprising that you should suspect either; I know how precious to a man of letters are his eyes, and, of course, how very discouraging are the most distant apprehensions of losing them. I myself was once afraid of going blind, and had the floating atoms as you have, but, by the course which I shall recommend to you, am now, thank God, greatly recovered. "In the first place, you must strain your eyes as little as possible by study, and never by candlelight. 2. When you read, exclude all glare, shading your eyes with green silk; which should also be worn when you go abroad; at least, you ought to flap your hat. "3. Keep your head always close shaved, bathing it every morning and evening in cold water. This suggestion was adopted by Dr. Grainger. 4. Take a pinch of the following snuff every night, half an hour before you go to bed: R. Fol. siccat. asar. Majoran. Tabac. a' 3j M. conterant. omnia simul in pulverem. The more it makes you sneeze, and opens your head, the better. "5. Bathe your eyes three or four times a day with the following collyrium: R. Aq. Regin. Hung. Sp. Vin. Camphorat. a' zi "6. Add a scruple of camphire to an ounce of the white ointment of the London dispensatory, and put the bulk of a pea in the inner corner of each eye when you go to bed, which ought always to be before eleven o'clock. "7. Once a week use any gentle purgative. "8. High-seasoned foods, and those of a gross nature, are improper. "9. Drink valerian instead of tea, infusing some rosemary, e. g. one half with the valerian. Avoid malt liquors. Wine alone, or wine and water, are your best drink. "10. I think a seton should be cut in your neck; but, above all, I would advise you to hasten to town, where you shall want for no help that physic and surgery can administer. "And now, my dear Percy, you may depend upon it, that not one line shall be printed that can give modesty the smallest apprehension. I shall adopt your version of the 5th and 8th Elegy,* and leave out some of the suspicious verses in the 9th. I have read over your remarks, and think most of them very just. I cannot, however, help differing from you with regard to the 108th and 109th lines of the 5th Elegy of Book II. I have not lived so much in the country as you, but methinks I have have often heard a father there talk of his son's resemblance to himself, and hope that he would one day either be a captain or the parson of the parish. Besides, you will please to consider that the Roman husbandmen were different even from our yeomanry. It is strange, * Of Tibullus. but it is true, those Elegies which you justly find most fault with, were those that gave the most trouble in translating. But you know how difficult it is to clothe a common thought in poetical English. I thank you for your emendation of the Advertisement. It was sent me in due time. "In expectation of a proof-sheet, which had been positively promised me this night, I have kept my letter open till twelve at night. But no proof. Should we not damn these lying scoundrel printers?" "To the Rev. Mr. Percy, Easton Mauduit." Dr. GRAINGER to Rev. T. PERCY. ["March 30, 1757.] "What you mention with regard to the ointment really astonishes me; and the more so, as a gentleman who laboured under the same eye disorder which you have, and for whom I had ordered it some time ago, came the other day to Bond's Court to thank me for the service which it had done him. But there is no opposing experience, and therefore I the more readily concur with you in not giving it a second opportunity of doing you mischief. Perhaps, though, it might be expedient to mix one part of my ointment with three parts of the camphorated white, to be used at bed-time. "That the electuary for the first two or three times should scour you is not amazing. Diminish the dose, and take it but twice a week. Some little discharge by the intestines is absolutely necessary to preserve you from the condition of your poetical predecessors, Homer and Milton. " Will my friend excuse me? Do you know I am half pleased to think that Northamptonshire æther does not suit you so well as London air. Is not that an indication of your being visibly most cut out for our metropolis? Would to God you had a fat city living, then you should drink water and I would booze wine. "Tibullus goes on most miserably slow. I shall, however, soon send you down a third sheet. Pray set about the first Elegy of the third Book, and think of the Panegyric. We are to appear in two volumes. "Mr. Johnson asked as did Miss Williams. are still in Hampshire. for you very kindly Sunday last, Messrs. Turner and Bourryau Douglass and Ingham are daily going about seeking whom they may cure, no doubt, as is, dear Percy, "Your friend, "J. GRAINGger. "P.S. The money has not been called for. Pray send me a new note of the people to whom I am to pay it, the old being lost." "To the Rev. Mr. Percy, at Easton Mauduit." "DEAR PERCY, Feb. 1758. "I was greatly concerned to find by the papers that Lord Sussex* was dead; and I sincerely sympathise with you on the vast loss you must have sustained by this unhappy event. He was your friend, and had interest; and your personal merit authorised him to say everything in your favour. But I hope invenies alium. My friend must be a dignified churchman. In the meantime I would advise you to attempt an alleviation of your sorrows by celebrating the virtues of the deceased in an Elegy. You who have done such justice to Tibullus, must succeed when the subject is your friend and patron. "I thank you for the elegant version you have sent me. I have read it to some folks of real taste, who all approve of it. Mr. Strahan, a particular friend of mine, and some others, are at present upon an extensive plan of a Monthly Chronicle; and as they have often heard me praise your poetical talents, they desire me to engage you to furnish them with poetry. They are determined to publish nothing in that way but what is good, and therefore they are very urgent with me for your Scotch song.§ Shall I let them have it? It can do you no harm, or rather it will do you honour when the author is named. I shall now and then send them a little supply; and if you will also at your leisure let them have some fresh, * George Augustus Yelverton succeeded his father as second Earl of Sussex in 1731, died s. p. Jan. 8, 1758, and was buried at Easton Mauduit. (Brydges's Peerage, vi. 631.) Mr. Percy appears to have written an Ode in honour of him. (See p. 267.) He was succeeded by his brother and heir Henry, who died April 22, 1799, s. p. when the earldom of Sussex became extinct. + Wm. Strahan, esq. afterwards king's printer and M.P. He died July 9, 1785, aged 70. See Lit. Anecdotes, III. 390-395. The Grand Magazine. "O Nannie, wilt thou gang with me?" |